Busy

Been a busy few weeks for me, Ive set up a new photographic forum which can be found at http://shutterchat.lefora.com/ should you wish to pop along and have a look at. Lots of quality input from amateurs to professionals with some great feedback from all so Im really looking forward to watching and helping it develop.

Sunday was a great day I managed to combine two of my passions at once, Jack and I went to the first Sky Ride in Birmingham, which is a charity ride around the City, the first time its taken place there, which is great as I usually have to travel to London to do anything like this. We did the route twice, 15000 participents, live bands and good weather to boot.

After we had finished we had a look around the main arena to find local girl turned supermodel, Erin O' Connor being interviewed on stage. Luckily I had taken my camera and for once had decided to travel 'light'! So the 40D 24-105f4 handled everything beautifully, I could have done with some more reach at times but hey ho travel light was the key.

When Erin had finished being interviewed see went to the Sky team area to sign autographs, the lens and body combo came in real useful and I managed to rattle of some decent frames - well for me anyhow. I looked on the pro's website yesterday and considering the guy was stood next to me I prefer my shots - well hey I would.

Noticed today as I havent been on here for a while some new followers so hello to you all Martin, Mark Simon, Jo, Kev and my mate Jamie.

Well had a really enjoyable day yesterday, met up with Martin Dyer & Jacqui Sissons, whom Ive been in contact with over the last few years. Had a good chat, laugh and spoke about forums, cameras etc. Right up my street. I think you can communicate over forums but you only ever get snippets and slight insights of feelings, experience etc, so it was really good to meet up with like minded people and talk face to face and learn something new. The 7D sounds like a really bit of kit and seeing as its the Bank Holiday weekend and Im out with the guys on Monday shooting at Oulton Park and will ask Ronnie if I can have a play with the 7D. It must be good if Martin will be ditching his 1D MKIII in favour of this and a full frame.

Seeing as the weather was'nt so good I decided to have a play with my lighting set up and took a few shots of Schumachers Chrome Ferrari helmet that I happen to own. I used a couple of strobes remotely fired with the ST-E2 on the 1D, its really interesting to see how moving the lights slightly make a huge difference. Seeing as Im backing off from posting on forums I popped a few shots on to promote my website which I had some decent feedback via Facebook! Here is one that was deemed to be one of the better ones.

Landscapes

Well managed to get to try my hand at landscapes again, not my usual barrow this one but a genre I like to try from time to time. I would have liked to have spent more time on the site than what I got but thats what happens when you cart non photographers around with you. I managed to shoot the waterfalls at Pistyll Rhaeadr in Wales nr Oswestry, reminded me of the time I spent up in Yorkshire at the start of the year with some of the members off the forum. This time I shot with two bodies the 1D MK III with the 24-105 lens on it and the 40D with the 10-20 lens. Im amazed at just how good the 24-105 is at landscapes, I primarily got this lens as a good 'walkabout' but this really gave me the flexibility on site to play with various set ups. Its quite odd going from the zoom to the super WA on the same shoot and it takes time for the eyes to adjust and especially composition.

Here is a shot taken with the super WA looking back from the waterfalls. I was in two minds whether to take out the bridge in CS5 using the content aware button but as ever I whats in the frame stays within the frame. I really must remember to get better composition using this lens in future but as with most things practice makes perfect.

On a slightly different note my understanding of Lightroom is improving and on my recent trip to Edinburgh with Jamie he has given me some killer tips which I used with this shoot - to that end my time at the computer has literally halved so all in all Im happy boy.

Scottish Premier League

Well I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend a pre season friendly in Edinburgh as a guest photographer at Hearts v Blackburn. What an amazing experience, guested into the ground, given a pro bib and told where Jamie and I could shoot. Got to mingle with the Press photographers, some were from the National Papers, it was really interesting to see how they work. Most shot with 1D and prime lenses and the other half with Nikon D3 again with primes. For the up close action 70-200 f2.8 seemed to be the order of the day. I can quite honestly say the time flew and the work rate is immense, towards the end of the game I managed to get to grips with using two cameras at once, I think a better understanding of the game would be a big help.

My shooting speeds for this were between 1/800th - 1/2000th the way the ball zips around both in the air and player to player is amazing. I now have a real admiration for these guys, some were even sending the images back whilst shooting the match. The way technology works these days still blows me away.

I now have a few more PP skills tucked into my belt thanks to Jamie showing me shortcuts and how to drop in Grad filters, a real boon. Still got lots to learn and I have to pinch myself I never thought I would find myself doing this with my photography work.

Rallying

Been a while since I posted up all the new gear is now getting a good workout, met up with Jamie, Andy and Ronnie in Wales for the Sweet Lamb Rally stage on Sunday. As ever had a great time with the guys, Dad and Jack came along to witness the goings on.

First time Ive ever done a rally and wasnt disappointed at all, lots of action and at time didnt know where to point the camera first. I used the 1D with the EF24-105F4L and Jack and Dad used the 40D with the 70-200F4. Got some great action shots with water splashes, jumps, rooster tails to name but a few. Upon getting home I have radically changed my workflow as I was increasingly spending more time behind the PC than behind the camera. However after some tips from the lads Ive now got Adobe Lightroom 3 and used that to import, sort and adjust the images. the amazing thing is I stuck in a rut with the my old way, this makes it all a breeze and I love how you can carry settings over from image to image. So at the end of it, rated my shots and put the images for Dave into a different folder, job done!

Well off to the Low Fly with the gang tomorrow so will be looking to trying out the new workflow and uploading technigues, all in all one happy boy!

Well since the body uprgrade, Ive decided to get rid of my weakest lens in the bag the EF28-105 USM, did this via Ebay and yes what a nightmare, had to cancel a bidder who did it from his phone probably had one too many.

Anyhow I now have an EF24-105 F4IS on the front of the 1D as a general walkbout lens, this weighs quite a bit, however the images it produces are stunning. Ever since trying out this combination the light has been rubbish, still not letting that deter me I went off to Coventry Cathedral today to try it out. The funny thing is Im trying to travel light these days with camera gear, so upon finding the Cathedral, guess what? Yep I needed my super wide angle instead! I think realised that the purpose of this exercise was to try the gear out and use what you have slung round your neck.

So had a wonder round rattled a few frames off and decided to have a look at the new Cathedral, walked in £5.00 to get in a have a look, Im sorry but its a place of worship and there is no way Im paying that to visit a public place, made me smile really, theres me with a few thousand quids worth of gear and I refuse to pay to get in somewhere.

Well tried my hand at landscape this week with the 1D, not sure it likes to go too wide however it sure is impressive. The 1.3 crop is taking some getting used to after spending my digital life on 1.6. Having switched back to the 40D for a few shots I must admit to being quite shocked, had to change the WB as the difference in colours were miles apart. Everyone keeps harping on about all the custom functions and have I got used to the yet? Hell Im even in Manual already six days on, if you can take a picture you can take picture no matter how menus are available.

Here is one from today at Whitley Court taken with the ONE, this was shot in Manual and a ND Grad used to hold the sky back. Great lead in lines and strong contrasts make this image work for me hope you like it too.